What was that a no work out Wednesday ??

Yep, that's what happened when everyday life got in the way. And I like that it doesn't kill me mentally. My patience has come along way.
I just stay on track with calories and the issues at hand when time slips away. It doesn't happen often, but does happen. So I just stay focused and turn the page.

So I moved yesterdays run to today and got up at 5 O dark and got it together.
It was actually several degrees warmer than it has been this  past couple of weeks at that wee hour of the day.
So I took full advantage of a long sleeve tech shirt and one of my new pairs of Nike dri fit shorts. Set up the Garmin, hit the I POD play and off I went.
I went by 4 other runners on this out and back of 5 miles. That was the most ever on that leg of a run, and certainly a record in my mind at the time of day. But it was great to pass by, wave and give a smile to fellow freaks of the dawn :-).

Very mellow run a solid even 9:28 pace. My fastest mile being the 5th at 8:36, which is good for me. I can really feel where the few extra pound I have shed this past month have helped me feel more nimble.
Well as nimble as possible. I also think the weekly cycling climbs in our group rides of 55-70+ miles have helped allot in getting my fitness to another level.
So far I continue to stay as loose as possible and injury free. My 2.5 day scare was good enough for me. I'm glad it came and went as it did.

I'm still looking for 2 more days of cycling this week, totaling another 80 + miles. Looks good to go so far.

Train hard,train smart, be healthy.       

Say what you want

But 38 degrees is cold where ever you are.
Now I get the fact that in that temp I get to see rolling waves and a beautiful sunrise cresting over the local mountains.
But it is still cold and there is no way to shake that.
22 mile ride this morning on my Ferrari F-1, I mean Felt F-1. It wasn't pure joy due to the early morning whine session coming through my head. But it was nice to hammer out some miles and get in some more saddle time.

It was a joy to watch the dolphins body surfing and just lounging around in the chilly water. The wind wasn't too awful either way, but it's presence was there.
There were not many other people out yet, but I reckon they will get on it soon enough, as it appears that it will get up in to the mid 60"s and crystal clear with sun.
I did see about 10-14 La Habra team members duking it out in a nice fast rotation on the other side of the road. I was really wishing I was over there at that time because I was starting to fatigue a bit then.
I'm still rolling with the no food on the morning workouts for runs less than 5 miles and rides less than 20 miles. It did help me shed an extra 4.5 pounds in February and I was able to make that stick without changing anything else on my normal diet.
I eat relatively clean ( not perfect) but pretty good. My issue is portion control at dinner. Everything else is pretty spot on. That being said I have still managed to drop that weight,get under 200 and sustain it.
188 pounds has a nice ring to it and would put me at my best physical weight I ever competed at.
So we keep moving forward and trying things that work, and scrapping those that don't.

Life has been a bit hectic lately and has challenged training volume. But I'll keeping pushing back when it throws out roadblocks.
Scheduled in and hoping to get in a 5 mile run tomorrow. This will be my first run since last Thursday, which is where my butt muscle issue came shortly there after, so well see how that goes.

Train hard,train smart, be healthy.     

came and went

I want to say thanks to those that sent me well wishes via e-mail and blog.

My pain fortunately ended up being some type of  a pulled ass muscle ? It went away after 2 days rest and anti inflammatory. It is the first time ever that an anti inflammatory actually worked well and quickly for me.

Got to pick up the new bike on Saturday. It was even more awesome than the first time I saw it.
Road Sunday's club ride with OC Velo. Patrick and I hooked up and rode down to meet the rest of the crew that would show up. Sunday rides are spotty it seems, but because of the lack of a Saturday ride about a dozen people turned out.
I new from the very beginning it would be a faster than normal paced Sunday ride. Our out tempo was about 20-22 mph and it really should be about 18-19 mph.
That part didn't matter one bit to me as I just wanted to ride.
But as the ride kept progressing I did notice some unsafe issues going on in the group. I'm new to the club so I kept my distance from the once I didn't feel safe around. We mixed in some fast interval pace lines and a few normal climbs that are on this ride.
At one time we had a 7 man organized group climbing a couple mile straight away and we paced it at 22 mph. It was pretty flawless. If you have every had the chance to climb a decent grade where everyone is in sync and pulling it is pretty amazing.

Again I ran in to an old friend of mine before we headed out. In fact this is the same guy that got me into cycling when I was 18 years old. He was kind of on a babble fest, but it was great to see him. It had literally been over a decade. He was a room mate of mine for awhile and was even in my wedding party of my first marriage.
This guy was a hard charging local bike racer and raced on a national level sponsored by Schwinn. This is back when Schwinn still had a strong program. We worked our normal jobs and I got the privilege to train with him on a regular basis.There was never a shortage of cycling talent at these rides.I won't throw names out there, but I can say some went on to Olympic status and Junior national titles.
 He is also the 1st person I had ever meet that not only had done a triathlon, but an Ironman. This was back when M-DOT's where not really the envy of athletes. But only for the insane. I'm glad times have changed.

He started spouting about "COMO" street rides we used to do and kind of embarrassed the crap out of me about strength and power I possessed on the bike.
I would really rather let that sleeping dog stay laying down. I don't have that strength anymore and these are a bunch of people I don't even know.
Now I'm either going to be looked at like, hey wheres that strength and power? or that I was just a poser and never had it ?
I always say things happen for a reason. I have been recently pressed by another friend of mine to get back out there and be competitive on the bike. And then this ghost shows up. It has to be some type of sign.
I'm truly trying to ride and run back into shape, but it takes some time.
Come March I will be doing some midweek evening local crit racing and I will see if I can bring some heat in the masters division. Or at least get back into some sort of strong riding shape.
I won't take my eye off the run and swim, I still have a few triathlons and a couple more running races I want to compete in this year.
I don't want to be a one dimensional sport person. Plus I like the training for all. But I do have to face the fact that although I have a decent swim capability, I am an average at best runner.
So I'll do triathlons and focus on my weaknesses and enjoy the heck out of it.
And I'll get some miles in on the bike and improve on my strength. No matter how I slice it, it beets the crap out of sitting on the couch and turning into an ageing middle aged, over weight sloth.

Big shout out to    http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ he is racing an Oly this weekend. The first of the year for him. He is looking solid and I suspect he is going to be a force this weekend.
He is looking sharp and ready. I'm sure this doesn't surprise anyone.

did I tell you I got a new bike, and I'm overly excited about it !!!!           

what have I done ?

This is a real question, out of the blue. I have a shooting pain when sitting and then shifting or l;eaning forward, or getting up.
It feels like I fell on my tailbone, but I haven't. I ran yesterday and it was not noticably uncomfortable ? I rode 2 days ago, and it is so far away from my sitz bone area I cant imagine it was hurt then ?
I thought it was from sitting on my couch kind of stretched out and lazy ?
Anyone experience this before ?
I feel fine standing and walking ? 

Kicking it old school and loving this.

A bit, wait, way off topic. But I pulled up to my office yesterday and found this parked out front. True California classic straight from Germany. This thing was dirty, but oh so cherry.

1956 oval window rag top. The inside was flawless and all original.

Then come to find out it was a client/vendor/friend of mine. I asked if I could test drive it for a year or so. Sadly he declined.
I don't know if your a fan or not, but VW's of this age and caliber are art to me.

Moving forward.
I managed to take advantage of the dry,coldish weather and get in a pre dawn to sunrise 20 mile ride.
Was fortunate enough to hook up with another rider at mile 10 from another local cycling club. We chatted and spun at a fairly high speed for the next 5-6 miles. It's funny when you have other riders or another rider how fast you can go and still bla,bla, bla.
He was my envy of the day. He was meeting 5 other friends another 8 miles North and then turning around and heading south down to San Clemente. In just a quick calculation in my head he should get in 60-75 miles of riding. *** sigh *** on a Wednesday morning, to me that is just about as good as it gets.
Anyways, he was super friendly, we parted ways at my turn off and I wished him safety and a good day.
I got in just under 21 miles in 1:03 and didn't even have a crank come off :-)
Sadly this may be the last ride until Sunday. Assuming Saturday washes out with the suspected rain, but I'm still hopeful.

Train hard, train smart, be healthy. 
   


   

lunch time pole position

Apparently there are outside sources that read my blog and then go to my gym and jamb me up in the swimming lanes.
I never had company until I started blogging about how I never had company in the pool.
Now it's common on at least one swim a week where I share a lane. And all others have something going on. I say something because I'm guessing some nut case has sold these people on a bill of goods that what they are doing over there is in someway beneficial. And who the heck am I so maybe it is.
Hell I heard about this one crazy lady in Colorado area that runs in the pool for hours !!! Oh snap, did I say that out loud :-)
Today was kind of fun though because we were racing weather he knew it or not and I was kicking his ass.

This is not me, it's a friend of mine. But I love the picture so, whatever !!

Lunch swim was fast quick and furious. I am not fast, I'm not even allowed to use that word.
50 meter warm up
4x200 all under 3:58
2x100 both under 1:46
3x50 all under :41
 1150 meters in 21:35

Not blistering but certainly respectable for me. I was looking forward to swimming and it was good.
Plus I one all my heats today :-). 

It is perfect run, bike weather right now. Sunny and coolish. Holy cow would I love to be going hard on a bike right now or chew up a run trail!!

Train hard,train smart, be healthy.  

No Stopping at any time.

Just another patience tested and character building session sent our way.

The west coast got murdered with rain off and on Saturday. But it appeared most got out and got there sessions in. I was not one of those that did. I had my son this weekend and chose another path.

Some will think I'm insane when they read this next part.

I did manage to drag my little guy on a 2 hour turn around trip to ** wait for it ** check out a new bike.
Yes, that's right, your heard me. My beloved Italian Bianchi that I waited patiently for was mis sized. And try as I might for the love of it, I just can't get it to fit perfectly. And if it doesn't fit perfectly, it's not the bike for me. So lesson learned and I'll move forward.
I may be even moving deeper, into my past life of bike racing with this upcoming purchase. I won't be abandoning my beloved Triathlon, but may be embarking on adding some criterium and road racing to the mix as well.I never git any higher than a level 3 before, maybe I can do something special as a master? More on that later.

Patrick from http://www.theroadmultisport.com/ and I, had been texting back and forth on Saturday evening about riding Sunday. It was likely getting annoying because of his short film on bikes,dogs and white noise.
That being said we finally agreed we would hook up at noon Sunday and get in some 50 + miles.

The next morning broke with sunshine and drying roads. It was about 9 a.m. when the e-mails via Face book from the bike club started. Some were meeting at HB pier around 10:00 for a ride.
I then started trying to see if P wanted to meet up earlier and jump in.
5 text later and I'm sure we were both scrambling, but managed to get it together.
We met at our normal spot and proceeded at a much faster pace to get to the starting point.
After rushing to get there and about 3oo yards away. I start noticing a looseness in my left pedal crank and a clicking in my bottom bracket.
Not good to say the least, and on top of that, no one was at the meeting point. We made it there with exactly 1 minute to spair.
Patrick and I looked at each other and our focus turned to my bike.
He made the comment of exactly what was on my mind. Bike religion is 4 miles away. Make it there, get it fixed and finish our ride.
We made it to    http://bikereligion.com/ and introduced ourselves. Fortunately the same guy that approached us is the same person I just had about an hour conversation with about a bike some 3 days ago.
As quickly as he could, he got my bike back there and racked to figure out what was what.
I really have to give the shop and him special props. Even though this is our club   http://ocvelo.com/ sponsored bike shop. I believe they would have given similar attention to anyone. Bike people are bike people.
That being said. It was finally realized a retainer cap on the left side of the crank had backed off and dropped out. They didn't have it. They helped phone another semi local shop and they didn't have it either. So it was get the crank back on as best as possible and try to get the 10-12 miles back home.

Off we went.
Within a couple of miles it was loose. We stopped and tightened it.
Within 3000 yards it was loose. We stop and tighten it.
Within 2000 YARDS IT WAS LOOSE AND THE WHOLE CRANK HAD COME OFF WHILE MY FOOT WAS STILL CLIPPED IN. We stopped ,I swore, we laughed and tightened it.
At this point Patrick is saying worse comes to worse I'll ride home get my truck and come back to get you.

I'm thinking, holly crap. It's not getting to that point is it ?

I put it back on and within 1000 yards it comes off again and Patrick runs it over. O.K. I'm done !!
We had came to the revelation that there is another bike shop on main street PCH that likely won't have the part, but Patrick was willing to hammer down there check it and get it if possible.

Again we laughed and he made the comment that at least I would have a blog story.

Off he went like a warrior. With the pure mentality of never leaving a soldier behind.
It was then when I called the support vehicle into action (aka my wife), just in case. While I was sitting there thinking about all that happened and was happening I noticed the pole my bike was leaning up against and what it said.

This is just cruel and rude.

This is what happened

All is well now, all thanks to a  good   GREAT  friend. And a support vehicle that got us home. At this time Patrick was over it and elected a ride home. His plan was to maybe go get a swim in. I don't know if he did or didn't but I suspect I know. He also got to meet my wife and Eric my youngest. So now my wife knows he actually exist and is not just a made up character in my head :-)

So we will ride another day soon.

But likely it will be on this - Full carbon Felt F-1 Garmin Slipstream powered by Chipotles model.
I couldn't resist it and put a deposit down on it.

Cant wait ! cant wait ! cant wait !!! like a little kid or worse.


I did get a run in this morning at a decent pace with no IPOD. THIS is rare for me. But Ive read so many blogs lately and articles on hearing your footsteps to the feeling your footsteps. I think I got away from this early on, and I don't think it has helped me.
So I did hear my steps, and it allowed me to change my step cadence, therefore my pace.

I got in a quick 3.4 miles in 29:33 with very little effort. This was huge for me, because I felt more fluid running at just over 8:30 pace than if I was running my normal 9:00 to 9:30 pace.
I know I cant run without music for long, but maybe this will instill the pace I need to be at. Then I can get my music back on. ?? 


Train hard,train smart, be healthy.